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Woodburn Police Chief Scott Russell, on left, with Sgt. John Mikkola. A tort claim filed against the city contends the chief and his command staff have failed to investigate officers' complaints involving alleged misconduct by their supervisors.
(Margaret Haberman/The Oregonian)

Several Woodburn police officers contend that police brass have retaliated against them for reporting alleged misconduct and potential criminal activity involving their supervisors.

The officers cite a “cancer in department management’’ and an “uncontrolled renegade’’ command staff who have covered up reported misconduct, and instead placed the officers who raised concerns under “sham’’ internal investigations and disciplined them with suspensions, demotions and removed one from a federal task force, according to a tort claim filed against the City of Woodburn.

“The message is clear: ‘Go along and get along’ with anything the command structure presently in place at Woodburn P.D. demands … Do so even if it conceals known improper or openly unlawful activity by command officers,’’ wrote attorney Jeffrey H. Boiler, who filed the legal notice in late November.

Boiler said he intends to file a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against the City of Woodburn, Woodburn Capt. Jason Alexander, Sgt. John Mikkola and other command staff in the 31-member police department, on behalf of Woodburn Police officers Jarrod Bowers, Peter Lichte and Daniel Kelly.

He said he’s taking legal action now because Woodburn police have failed to adequately investigate the officers’ complaints.

“The matter has gone too far,’’ Boiler said. “This is going to have to be given a day in federal court.’’

Russell, who has been out on medical leave since Oct. 28, said he’s aware of the tort claim. In a written response, he said only, “I believe that the city has appropriately addressed these concerns, and I am confident that this matter has been handled correctly.”

No criminal investigation was conducted into an allegation that Mikkola attempted to sexually assault the girlfriend of another Woodburn officer at the sergeant’s home in 2009. Mikkola had asked then-probationary officer Kelly to drive him home from a bar because he was intoxicated, the claim says.

Kelly and his girlfriend, at Mikkola’s request, slept that night at the sergeant’s house in one bedroom. The sergeant, according to the claim and an Oregonian interview with the alleged victim, burst into the bedroom nude in the middle of the night, jumped on the bed and tried to force himself on the woman and sexually assault her.

Woodburn police conducted a “personnel investigation” that concluded the off-duty encounter was consensual, said Jason Horton, spokesman for the City of Woodburn.

“It was determined that there were no policy violations, there were no grounds to pursue a criminal investigation, and the incident involved the consensual conduct of off-duty employees,’’ Horton said, in a written statement Wednesday.

Kelly and the alleged victim did not report the incident when it occurred because Mikkola was Kelly’s sergeant and he worried about getting through probation.

Kelly’s girlfriend, a reserve officer for another police agency, didn’t want to jeopardize her own law enforcement career. But the attorney bringing the claim against the department had spelled out the allegations in a memo to the police chief in February 2010.

The woman, now 28, told The Oregonian that she was interviewed once on the phone by a member of the Woodburn Police Department two or three years ago. She confirmed to police what had occurred, and there was no follow-up meeting.

“It wasn’t consensual. Never!’’ she said. “It upsets me that they would turn that around and say that. I’d never been in a situation like that before. I was uncomfortable. I didn’t know what to do.’’

Mikkola Friday night denied any wrongdoing. "There was no sexual misconduct,'' he said, and referred other questions to his lawyer. The city's spokesman said Mikkola is on a non-disciplinary leave of absence, but Mikkola said he took a medical retirement in May.

Among other allegations in the tort claim notice:

- Capt. Alexander humiliated a female crime victim by sharing the victim’s nude photos for “casual review’’ with other police supervisors, sometimes in the victim’s presence. After Bowers objected, telling an immediate supervisor, he was placed on administrative leave.

- Capt. Alexander would verbally ridicule Bowers in front of other police employees. For example, he’d repeatedly refer to one of Bowers’ confidential female informants and tell Bowers: “Why don’t you just (expletive) her and get it over with,’’ the claim says.

- After Officer Lichte complained of a hostile work environment at Woodburn Police Department, a methamphetamine pipe and bag of meth showed up on the seat of his locked patrol car. Lichte photographed the drug and pipe and reported the incident, because he hadn’t transported any suspects. Boiler said he believes the evidence was planted in the police car, and no investigation was done.

Woodburn’s human resources director last year investigated Kelly and Lichte’s complaint of a “hostile work environment.’’ The human resources director, Michael R. Hereford, interviewed 10 people and concluded there were “no facts sufficient to support a finding that there is or was a hostile work environment,’’ according to his September memo to the police chief.

Officers identified in Boiler’s tort claim, disagree. Boiler said a “culture of lawlessness and abuse of police authority’’ exists in the Woodburn Police Department. Officers who have complained, he said, have faced demotions and suspensions.

Woodburn’s city administrator Scott Derickson said he has full confidence in the chief and his command staff. “The citizens should know that the City holds its employees to the highest standards of ethical and professional conduct,” he said.